Is texting giving you a pain in the neck?

How much time do you spend on your phone?

Pain in your thumbs, wrists, arms, shoulders, and neck can likely be traced back to your phone.

It could be from the extreme amount of phone use in our lives. A new article posted in The Journal of Ergonomics out of the University of Waterloo shows that a significant number of people are feeling serious pain from texting.

I am beginning to see this more often in my practice. The concerning issue is that I am mostly seeing thumb and wrist pain and injuries in adults, who have only been texting for the last few years at most, and probably don’t text nearly as often as teenagers or young adults in college and university. If I just saw a teacher this week with a thumb injury from texting, imagine what her students are going to be like as she is constantly having to take her student’s phones away from them due to incessant texting in school.

It will be scary in 5 or 10 years from now, seeing the hand, neck and shoulder issues from all the chronic texting people were doing as teenagers. But maybe by then we’ll have a new type of technology that is radically different as well? In terms of advice for these new pain syndromes, the old adage of moderation is best. And any new injury should be using ice to reduce inflammation, along with rest, and a follow-up with a health professional if symptoms persist.

What do you think?

Do you think your unexplained pain and soreness could be caused by texting?